PLANTING FOR BEES

another thing about buttonbush,you can pretty much cut off a twig and jam it into moist ground and it will grow,of course sitting a cutting in a bottle with water till it sprouts will have better results.

I have heard many trees mentioned here but not the catalpa tree, also known as the Indian bean.
It blooms multipal times during the year and we have many of them on our grounds. It would be just my luck that their flowers are too long for the bees to get inside of, or that they do not produce any nectar...
Anyone? Thanks,
Bill

catalpa is listed as a honey source in THE HIVE AND THE HONEYBEE,but does not say much and does not indicate it is especially important to bees.

I noticed a question was raised concerning the honey locust. I have a tremedous amount of these trees on some property I own. I plan on putting a couple of hives on this property this year. If anyone has any info on whether the bees will get a honey flow from this tree, I would be in your debt. I have tried to get the book honey plants of North America, and have been unsuccessful in getting a copy..


Thanks
Thesurveyor

back on the subject of goldenrod,my bees are very picky about it,i know here in indiana there are over 40 species of goldenrod,my bees don't sem to like some types at all,other ones they hit on only after all the joe-pye weed is finished.i do recomend joe-pye weed its easy to grow,big and pretty.i've found that if you have an area of fescue,cut it short once early in spring to get the grass short and then the field wild flowers will have a good chance to get established, i also sometimes burn patches of grass,it does wonders.

sorry surveyor,but as far as i know,honey locust are not used by bees,only black locust.

My planting experiment is underway!

I planted eleven acres this last weekend. I decided on five distinct areas of forrage.
Three acres of Yellow clover
Three acres of Huban clover
Three acres of Alfalfa
One acre of Canola and
One acre of Safflower/Sunflower mixed

The bad news is that I am told that the clover will not bloom the first year, that it needs a dormant period first. Well, we will still have plenty of forrage for this year.

You have been a great help, I have identified many plants on my property that I had not known to be nectar producers. I am looking to have a good year.
Bill

[This message has been edited by BULLSEYE BILL (edited March 17, 2003).]

has anyone ever had bees on strawberry's?,I've read alot about it, they say bees don't get much from it & you need to put the bees on it about 4 or 5 days after it blooms,I'd like to get some info on this because they are several people planting it around here,(it's u-pick farm's),some has asked me about placing bees on the crop's. thank you for ANY help. mark

mark, i don't know about the value of it as a nectar/ pollen source,but i know bee's do work it,i saw an interesting story years ago that i had forgotten,some university tried bees as a way to deliver a powder(i can't remember what) to strawberry blossoms instead of spraying the plants by hand/machine,the treatment was to prevent a fungus or something,and thus a better crop.the bees would walk through the powder as they were going out to forage.they claimed their bees did a much better job.this also was supposedly harmless to the bees.anyway sorry i can't remember more,maybe it's on the web somewhere?

I believe this is the study to which you are referring --> http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?art...82809EC588ED9F

In "The How-to-do-it Book of Beekeeping," it says that buckwheat only secretes nectar in the morning. Sorry, I couldn't find the page.

Last year was my first year for harvest and the honey was absolutely beautiful. I was told by local beekeepers that the white clover was reason. I have planted quite a bit for the last several years for deer food plots. It looks like the bees was an unexpected addition to the benefit. I planted more in the February snow.

i think that some beekeepers never see a particular plant being worked by bees,and assume it's not used,but bees visit different plants at different times of the day,i'm not an early riser so i usually miss them hitting the buckwheat.maybe more cluster or compound type flowers retain nectar longer into a hot day and are hit later?also i think bees do have preferences as to taste,some plants seem to be used only if nothing else is going on(like ironweed).

Once a honey bee starts foraging a floral type, she will continue to forage that floral source until the nectar is completely depleted. And in heavey honey flows the same bee will actually continue visiting the same forage source day after day automatically.
This is why buckwheat can be hard to gather from, if flowering fields neighbour it. Buckwheat secretes nectar late morning and finishes early afternoon. Where as canola and clover secrete nectar first thing in the morning, continuing later in the day. Works to our advantage I guess, clover/canola honey pays more of a premuim.

Ian

From what I've seen Buckwheat goes for more than Clover. I've never seen Canola honey for sale, so I don't know what the price is.

Buckwheat sells for more, only to a small market. When selling to a packing plant, white honey always recieves the premuim over dark honey.

Ian

Whitetailman, my husband is a deer hunter and this past fall, he decided to plant some forage for the deer that live on and around our place. I was delighted to find that many of the plants deer love are also plants that bees love.

this year i've been planting buttonbush,black gum(tupelo) for my bees, chokeberry seems to be appreciated too.

>My planting experiment is underway!
>I planted eleven acres this last weekend. >I decided on five distinct areas of >forrage.
>Three acres of Yellow clover
>Three acres of Huban clover
>Three acres of Alfalfa
>One acre of Canola and
>One acre of Safflower/Sunflower mixed

>The bad news is that I am told that the >clover will not bloom the first year, that >it needs a dormant period first. Well, we >will still have plenty of forrage for this >year.

>You have been a great help, I have >identified many plants on my property that >I had not known to be nectar producers. I >am looking to have a good year.
>Bill

>[This message has been edited by BULLSEYE >BILL (edited March 17, 2003).]


An update on my field of dreams.

The yellow clover has taken off well and is about two foot high and looks just like a good stand of alfalfa, and no, it did not bloom hardly at all.

The Hubam is another story however. It is about three foot now, not thick or leafy, but a thinner stand and thinner plant in general. The good new is that I have a good bloom going on! There is a nice white hue to the field even though we have been in a drought, the field is looking GOOD!

The alfalfa stand is thin and short and I have been told it takes at least two years before it takes off. For now I am cutting the weeds off about one foot high.

One caution about planting safflower. Don't let it get in your pasture! I thought musk thistle was bad, cripes... Next year after the bloom I will have to go dig each plant out.

The canola did well this year as well as the sunflowers (state flower). I am going to reseed the canola again for a better stand.

All in all, I am getting excited for next years crop. I have pretty resigned myself to just growing bees this year as I am expanding my number of hives, and next year I will produce honey.




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Bullseye Bill
Smack dab in the middle of the country.

Bill- we planted white and yellow sweet clover last Fall and had plenty of flowers this year, so you will probably have pretty good success with that one. It's a little too soon for Fall planting in this area, but come September...
Question for anyone with experience growing buckwheat- when is the time to plant it, Spring or Fall?
Thanks.